11/30/13

Kinky Boots Message of overcoming adversity by accepting diversity thrilled everyone. Well, almost everyone. The pseudo Christians at WND for instance. Who would have guessed. I remember a time when this sort of thing would have got you tied up from the highest post.....

....bed post that is and tickled to death.

Hey WND lighten up. The message is we can overcome together. Why don't you join with the world and try it?

11/28/13

Wearing a skirt and a smiling Agender Sasha Fleischman returned home yesterday after spending weeks in hospital recovering from burns.

Eighteen year old Sasha was asleep on the way home on a public transit bus when they skirt was set on fire. The surveillance video shows 21 year old Richard Thomas committing this act of violence but it has not been released by police who say its just too graphic.

Sasha has had tremendous support and love from their school who organized a community skirts for Sasha day in which everyone, even school officials, gladly participated by wearing a skirt.

While a sophomore in 2010 at George Washington College Kye informed his school he was transgender. While he remained on the woman's basketball team it was with the understanding he would not be allowed to begin HRT and for some reason, forgo SRS.

Basically Kye put his transition on hold. Understandably a very stressful time.

Kye has decided to pay it forward with Project I Am Enough a storytelling platform dedicated to promoting self-love, acceptance, and respect for everyone on the gender spectrum.

The end goal of the project is to help ten people financially who are just beginning transition in 2014.

Kye on the Go Fund me project: "As a shy, quiet, and closeted teenage girl growing up in Minnesota, I truly believed that I was the only gay person on the face of this earth. I would spend countless nights crying trying to figure out how I could be “normal”. I wanted to be like everyone else. It wasn't until later that I realized that being like everyone else wasn't an option, I could only be me.
Going to George Washington University for basketball gave me an opportunity to be around people that helped validate my identity. I was misinformed. There ARE other gay people in this world! Although that made me happy beyond belief I still felt like something was off, and I didn't know why. I had no words to express how I was feeling."

"All of that changed when I walked into my Human Sexuality class. Right in front of me was a panel of LGBT people sharing their stories. For the first time in my life I was able to hear from a transgender man as he talked about things that he had experienced throughout his life. I now had the vocabulary to explain how I was feeling. I’m a transgender man!"

So we, the people are forcing justice to happen DESPITE the school's attempted cover up and worse yet the egregiousness of American law enforcements who were complicit with these criminals.

Source Post Gazette: -- The rape investigation that brought the national spotlight to Steubenville, Ohio, has ended with the indictments of the city's school superintendent and three others connected to the school district.

A special grand jury on Friday indicted superintendent Michael McVey, 50, along with a principal, a wrestling coach and a former assistant football coach on charges related to failing to report or hiding evidence of the sexual assault of a 16-year-old girl by two football players after a drinking party in 2012. The charges were announced Monday.

While players Trent Mays and Ma'Lik Richmond were convicted in March, observers had wondered whether others tied to the district and its powerful Big Red football team would becalled to account.

According to DeWine’s department, Superintendent McVey stands to face a maximum of nearly eight years in prison if convicted on all counts. Belerdine, 26, stands to face at the most one year and 265 days in jail, and Fluharty and Gorman could each get away with serving only one month for their alleged crimes.

REALLY? That was the same response we got when we started demanding justice.

“Some may ask why others were not indicted,” DeWine said during Monday’s presser. “It is simply not sufficient that person’s behavior was reprehensible, disgusting, mean-spirited, or just plain stupid,” he said.

11/25/13

Svenson passed out an issue of the Education Reporter during the October meeting, and said:

"I would like to pass out something that shows people what is going on in the rest of the country. Massachusetts and California have passed laws relating to calling a student, irrespective of his biological gender, letting him perform as the gender he thinks he is, or she is, and I want to emphasize, and they're actually talking about joining girls sports teams going in the girls locker rooms and bathrooms, and I just want to emphasize not in this district. Not until the plumbing's changed. There would have to be castration in order to pass something like that around here."

She stands firmly by her statements.

"I don't have a problem if some boys think they are girls, I'm just saying as long as they can impregnate a woman, they're not going to go in girls locker-room," said Svenson. She says she brought the issue up in order for other board members to be aware of the issues that could be coming to Colorado very soon.

11/24/13

Transgender and LGB people were not mentioned as potential targets but we know all too well this sort of violence..."It's a chilling trend being felt across the country with incidents reported in Philadelphia, new york, Connecticut and Pittsburgh. Victims left injured and stunned. Footage of the attack caught on surveillance cameras or posted online by the attackers themselves." ~ More at ABC news

If you haven't been to see Laura Jane Grace yet this is what it means. Honesty. Raw soul. Courage. And LOUD, very very LOUD, head banging, crowd surfing, eye opening heavy metal introspection and joy.

Against Me! faced some controversy and doubt albeit very little, after Laura openly began transition. Some feared Against Me! would lose their cutting edge power with Laura's embracing her femininity. I saw her with her old band mates last year and they rocked. But the refreshed band looks so awesome I just can't wait for her to come back to the lonestar state.

Laura Jane Grace is proof that we should not assume anything about transexuality or Punk Rock.

50-year-old Jacqueline Cowdrey, known as Jacqui, was found dead in her ground flat in Heron Court, Victoria Road, Worthing, shortly before 6pm on Tuesday (19 November)

A post mortem was carried out on Wednesday but further tests need to be done to confirm the cause of death.

Detective Inspector Gordon Denslow said: "We are still trying to confirm exactly what happened to the woman in the hours before her death.

"We believe she was in an argument with a man in Bedford Row, close to the Vintner's Parrot pub in Warwick Street. Did you see or hear that argument taking place, some time between 4pm and 7pm on Monday (18 November) ?

"We would still also like to speak to anyone who may have seen or heard anything suspicious at Heron Court in the hours before we were contacted.

11/23/13

Secular Woman is a organization which amplifies the voice of non religious woman. Being humanists they also considers" the term woman to apply to anyone who presents herself as a woman or says she is one.

They also prescribe to many of the tenets of feminism and as such, abhor discrimination against womankind regardless of its origins.

"Calling political speech that does not toe the liberal line “hate speech” is a common tactic of Queer and Liberal organizations. Rather than free and open debate, such MRAs want you to embrace thought-terminating cliches like ”Transwomen are Women.” These MRAs – who are invariably White Males who “identify” as Women or heterosexual “Queer” Women who have no investment in Lesbian community – continually harass the Southern Poverty Law Center, which actually has its hands full tracking racist hate groups across the country."

TERF's attack trans people and gender non conforming people not for the sake of feminism but out of pure unadulterated hate. This group of people have done as much to damage transgender peoples acceptance as other groups identified as hate groups by the SPLC.

.

Screen grab of the Gender Identity Watch
post by Cathy Brennan with the only
known video copy of mainstream
media's outing of Jane Doe by name.

Ironically after reading some of the comments on Youtube it appears that the Ashlee Evans-Smith interview enlightened many who were previously opposed Fallon Fox fighting other woman.

Fallon Fox responds to this interview rather incredulously on Outsports:

But, that's clearly not really what this is about. This is about the category she has me in within her own mind. It's apparent to me that many people see me as "transgender" and not "woman," meaning they don't look at me as female, they don't look at me as male, they look at me as something "other". How rude and uneducated! All of this "misgendering" because they are not used experiencing a trans woman.

I am not an "other." I am female, a woman. I am classified as a transgender woman or transsexual woman. The terms simply label the type of woman that I am. Black woman, white woman, lesbian woman, and straight woman are other examples of labels we put on different types of women. Saying that I should be segregated in a class of only trans women is ignorant and discriminatory. It's much like how they tried to say that black women shouldn't be allowed in track when they first competed. They said they belonged in a separate category all to themselves.

Every minority in sports has to go through this, and all because of ignorance and fear. It's only been within the last hundred years or so that modern medicine has created the ability for people to change their sex. Individuals like myself will have to struggle against the mindset of people like Ashlee Evans-Smith. It's sad that we have to repeat history over and over again. But, this is the reality.

I wonder if Ashlee Evans-Smith recognizes the historical irony of her discriminatory beliefs.

Pacific Injustice Institute losses, again. In an ill advised publicity stunt the lawyers at the California P(in)JI failed to force a Colorado transgender girl to use the boys room.

After losing the California Marriage equality battle the P(in)JI needed another cash cow to milk. So these lawyers singled out a lone Colorado transgender high school student to sensationalize their currentfight against California transgender student equality legislation. Why all the way to Colorado? Because there were no instances of transgender students acting improperly in all of the California school districts that previously enacted trans specific equality rules.

And now we also know there have been no instances of Colorado transgender students acting inappropriately. On behalf of all minorities I would like to make it known that our existence is not criminal regardless of how "uncomfortable" we make some people feel.

Source Pueblo Chieftain (trigger warning): "The board voted unanimously to uphold a report issued by Superintendent Rhonda Vendetti following less than one hour in executive session Thursday evening."

"Vendetti was asked to look into the issue by an attorney representing the families of three girls. The girls reported harassment from a male student who identifies as a female."

"Florence police investigated the alleged harassment, however the detective assigned to the case was unable to substantiate any criminal charges when the girls declined to be interviewed." - Pueblo Chieftain.

From the Paific (in) Justice web site:::

Cristan Williams at the TransAdvocate called the school and talked to Superintendent Rhonda Vendetti:::

"In the Transgender Day of Remembrance , I decided to make – a performance " From Day of Remembrance" to the "Day of Defense", which aims to draw attention to the problem of transphobic crimes in Russia and bringing transgender people to suicide, as well as to encourage transgender abandon the position of the victim and begin to defense consistently the rights and freedom."
For the creative act I chose my nudity - my body , symbolizing both the vulnerability of transgender people are more likely to experience violence , and the need for an open fight for the rights. The letters "FSB" on my body - a protest against the silencing of statistics of killings based on transphobia, as official statistics of these crimes are not covered up in Russia and are not reflected in the media.
I recall the first Transgender Day of Remembrance was held November 20, 1999 in San Francisco , a year after the murder of MtF- transsexual Rita Hester .

There's a reason that there are no reported trans murders in Russia. It would be inconceivable to assume its because no transgender people living there. There are as many Russian visitors to planetransgender as there are from Canada, for example.

11/21/13

The mainstream media taking cues from police have identified Kaylee Johnson by her birth name and have since been misgendering her using male pronouns. According to friends and relatives Kaylee was just beginning to come terms with her authentic gender and was trying to cope with transition.

The police believe Kaylee jumped off the overpass because her car was located approximately over where her body was found, however earlier reports indicated she was decapitated. Police have refused comment on that.

11/20/13

There has been 238 transgender people murdered worldwide according to the Trans Europe murder project, that we know of. Looking at the Trans respect world map we see many counties with no reported murders. We know that's simply not true. Trans people are everywhere.

It's really hard on trans bloggers like myself as we have become proactive in reporting, but needless to say its harder on the immediate families members. Can you imagine being the mother of a trans child who at one point had been bullied to the brink of suicide?

Those mothers know these numbers aren't just statistics. They are human lives. Dear people, Conservative, liberal, religious, atheist, all people. Please take a moment out of your busy day to read her message and reflect on how you have affected trans lives.

So I wanted to share my dear friends perspective, a mother of a trans girl who has ltteraly gone through hell and back. Why we should care.

Transgender Day of Remembrance. What's the big deal? Why will so many people all over the world be lighting candles and forming in togetherness today? Why should we dare to have a day of Remembrance. Is it warranted? Is it necessary? Is it our right?

Do you know what pure fear feels like? I know someone who does. I know someone who faced pure fear from the age of four. Do you know what being called a freak by grown women feels like? I know someone who found out at the age of nine. Would you feel comfortable living as the opposite sex daily? I know someone who had to. Do you enjoy the idea of being pointed out and talked about when you go to shops? I knew a 7 year old who didn't enjoy that. Woud you appreciate being laughed at wherever you went? I know someone who didn't. Would you like the idea that you could be abused daily and nothing would be done about it? I know someone who experienced that frustration. How would you feel knowing that just by being you people will hate you? I know someone who wonders why. Do you think you could cope with knowing that at any point you could be attacked, beaten, ridiculed, humiliated or even murdered when you've done nothing wrong? I know someone who copes. How about considering ending your life because you cannot live in fear of being a human being? I know someone who got so tired it was an option. Do you think that the above is acceptable?
I don't.
So does that mean I'm abnormal?
Does it make me a bad person?
Am I a freak because I'm disgusted and saddened by the needless loss of human life? Am I mentally unbalanced because I pray for people to live freely and safely and with a quality of life that they have the God given right to?
Can I talk of God when I love and adore a transgender child? I can talk of God yes because I do not speak hatred with the same mouth.

Today is a day for showing respect for all those souls who were taken or left too soon. There are so many more than you could ever comprehend. You just don't hear about them.
I think of them everyday. I think of all those suffering with all kinds of issues too. My focus is on humanity and not concentrated on one area and walk of life. We will remember those who have gone with the Angels. They deserve that love that they never received. We know they are at Peace now. I would like the name count to decrease each year but it doesn't - it gets higher.
Transgender - not normal?
Think on what I have described if you think that's normal then you are partially responsible for why today exists...
Try and change your thinking.
If you can't then please at the very least do no harm...

On the eve of the TDOR Paris Wilson walked out of court a free man. Wilson was charged with misdemeanor assault in connection with brutal beating death of NYC transgender woman Islan Nettles.

After Islan died in the hospital it was fully expected that the charges against Wilson would be elevated and prosecuted as a hate crime.

It was wittnesed that Wilson made a pass at Ms. Nettles and became enraged, beating her to death in a fit of trans panic.

The time ran out for the prosecutors after the "speedy trial clock" 90 day limit expired on Tuesday.

Another unnamed man confessed to the murder but said he was too drunk to remember doing it. That man was allegedly taken to the police station by the mother of Paris Wilson who pressured him to make a false confession. That individual was not arrested because of inaccuracies in his confession.

"Emotions were flying all over. Happy, sad, more upset than anything," said grief-stricken Delores Nettles Islan's mother. "And then to see him walking out. And my baby can't come home."

Members of the transgendered community were present in court to support the Nettles family.

11/17/13

Source: Celebrity Cafe "Twerking has taken over McKinley High, especially in the Glee Club. Naturally, this doesn't sit well with Sue (the guidance counselor), who takes on the epidemic and tries to get it banned (of course, she is unsuccessful, as Will makes a convincing case to the school board in its favor). Will also rebels against her by singing 'Blurred Lines.'"

"Meanwhile, Unique is having a hard time using the bathroom at school because being Transgender makes it hard to use the bathroom. She isn't welcome in the girl's room, but gets bullied in the boy's room. After singing "If I Were a Boy," Unique makes a plea for a Unisex bathroom - Sue uses this as her way to end twerking by installing a port-a-potty in the choir room. Because this is still insulting, Schu allows Unique to use the faculty bathroom, then makes a final deal with Sue. If Unique can have a key to the faculty bathroom, he will stop the Glee Club's twerking. They close the show with their performance of "On Our Way."

This is a totally unrealistic 'solution'. First off, every trans person knows using a segregated restroom only serves to further ostracize them. Avoiding that as a 'solutions' is critical to our integration. Secondly, its not hard for trans people to use the bathroom unless they have a medical condition. It's societal misconceptions partially spawned by this episodes bathroom 'solution'.

Finally how amicable is a solution in which Unique will be remembered as the one to blame for the banning of twerking or extending that, cisgender sexual interactions. I appreciate GLEE producers integrating trans characters but please do it in a way that not further misconceptions.

Most importanly why are the major LGBT noT supporting Cristan Williams protest at the Pacific Justice Institute?

They told Cristans the protest "off Message". Thats a crock of shit. This episode is off message but promote it they will from there armchair safe offices. If the Trans Law Center and Equality California want to make a real impact they would be helping to get the word out.

Gabriela Isler is delightful, gorgeous and a transgender exclusionary bigoted cisgender woman. Isler made it known she does not think whats good for the goose is also good for the transgender

Is any less real after surgery
who gets to decide?
photo: Quemas.mamas latinas.com

I disagree. Whats good for the transgender is good for the gander and so does RED LGBT Venezuela.

During the interview it was observed that the crown fell off her at first. Isler explained the person crowning her was petite and at that moment the crown didn't fit her "It's mine and it was made for me and fits me (sic) very well".

I question whether that crown would have been such a perfect fit antes.

Giselle Castro at Quemas Mama Latinas notes that"I personally believe there's nothing wrong with getting a little plastic surgery here and there if a person decides they need it. In Isler's case, it's hard to deny that she looks like a completely different person in her after picture!"

A completely different person.

Gabriela said she claimed this victory for 'all people of Venezuela' further excluding transgender Venezuelans who she doesn't believe are real people.

11/16/13

Accounts differ about what transpired but somehow this fourteen year old's nose was broken and got both eyes damaged. The burn marks on his face are from being tasered which according to the only news report I could find happened while running from police handcuffed behind his back. Supposedly the police became 'worried' for his safety as he approached RT13 and tasered him. Did they then beat him? His mother said they wouldn't let her see him for three days after this happened.

This is my 14 yr old son who was brutually tortured By 2 Tully town officers he was handcuff but they say he resisted arrest that yall tazzed him in his face ...not only that they took him to lower bucks hospital with out his mother consent they broke his nose n both eyes were swollen shut these prejudice cops need a rude awakening any one know anyone that can help my son please help they took him to the police station n told me I could not come up there but as a mother who loves her child I did Go to the station they would not let me n at all they talked to me through the door I didn't see my son for tree days n the cops says o he's fine we ordered him pizza really? Any one who can help me get justice please comment I'm torn mad angry just can't deal # HELP

as reported earlier on planetransgender Jeydon had been
told is picture did no meet 'community standards'.

This is a victory for all Texans.

Source: The SPLC(and an outraged LGBT community) took action to protect a transgender teen’s rights, the La Feria Independent School District in Texas has agreed to allow his tuxedo photo to appear in the yearbook along with the other students in his class.

The decision came two days after the SPLC demanded the school district allow Jeydon Loredo, a transgender student and senior at La Feria High School, to appear in his high school yearbook wearing a tuxedo or risk a federal lawsuit against the school district. Before today's decision, Jeydon had been told the photo would not appear in the yearbook due to “community standards.”

“We are very pleased that the school district has recognized Jeydon for who he is – and treated him with the respect he deserves,” said Alesdair Ittelson, an SPLC staff attorney. “This is a signal to other school districts that transgender students should be included as important members of their communities rather than ostracized and subjected to discrimination. We applaud Jeydon’s courage in standing up for his rights.”

Attorneys for the school district agreed to provide written confirmation that Jeydon’s tuxedo photo will appear in the yearbook along with the other students in his class. The district also agreed to follow its own corrective policies for cases of gender discrimination and provide training for those involved, along with a comprehensive education program for the school community. The district will also expressly include gender expression in its ant-discrimination policies.

These untruths and lies have made all the news networks both right wing and main stream, front pages hoping to capitalize on the controversy vulnerability of this one child.

Why would a law abiding innocent high school student be ruthlessly attacked time and again by the PJI? Its he only way the smug heartless lawyers at PJI had to conjure fear and contempt in the hearts of California voters as they collected signatures to force a referendum of AB 1266, the newly enacted law giving all school children, including trans kids, an equal opportunity to succeed.

So why did they pick on this kid so far away?

There has never been a instance of a transgender student acting inappropriately in all of school districts in California that have previously instituted like policy.

One California hate group tried to start a rumor there was a instance of bullying by a transgender student in a LA school but that was exposed as a lie by school officials.. Just like the Colorado school district officials did.

Are you you in the greater Los Angles area and want to make a stand for equality? Join Cristan Willams of the TransAdvocate on Tuesday. And if the Lawyers from the PJI come out of their offices and face judgement? Outspoken articulate crusader Cristan Williams can handle it.

Update: Major LGBT groups are not supporting this protest. They say its "Off Message"
Read about how they are circumnavigating confrontation here

The Pacific Justice Institute is the shady organization that bullied a trans kid to the brink of suicide and is one of the major players in the effort to repeal protections for California's trans children.

The time has come to bring the fight to their doorstep.

Michael Peffer serves as Senior Counsel for Pacific Justice Institute and is officed at the "Christian Legal Aid Society."

The protest will take place at:

Christian Legal Aid Society
2200 North Grand Ave.
Santa Ana, CA 92711

The staging area is at the Starbucks at 2525 North Grand Ave. at 9:30 AM. We will then make our way to Michael Peffer to wish him a good morning and ask him why he supports bullying and abusing children.

11/15/13

The Guardian published Julie Burchill's trans toxic tirade in response to the slightly less offensive article Seeing red: the power of female anger but then deleted it after the experiencing the international transgender community outrage.

But that fact does not exonerate the Guardian nor does cries for freedom of speech or ignorance excuse the publishing of Burchills article in the first place.

The new transgender inclusive guidance from the PCC makes it clear, TERF Julie Burchill article was indeed hate speech by UK standards.

Protection from discrimination

Under the terms of Clause 12 (Discrimination), (i) "the press must avoid prejudicial or pejorative reference to an individual's race, colour, religion, gender, sexual orientation or to any physical or mental illness or disability". In addition, part (ii) makes clear that "details of an individual's race, colour, religion, sexual orientation, physical or mental illness or disability must be avoided unless genuinely relevant to the story". While the Commission does not regard transgender status or gender dysphoria as constituting an "illness or disability", it does consider that the terms of Clause 12 - parts (i) and (ii) - encompass transgender status and gender dysphoria.

Editors should consider carefully the language they employ to refer to individuals of transgender status, taking care to ensure that it is not pejorative or discriminatory. PCC staff members are available to provide Code advice on this issue, including guidance on previous rulings. Groups with expertise in this area have produced specialist guidance for journalists and are available to advise on individual cases (see below), although it is important to note that there is a range of views within the community on terminology issues.

Editors should also be aware of the issue of relevance. It may be useful to assess whether a story would be considered newsworthy if it did not concern an individual of transgender status, and if so, whether the individual's status is genuinely relevant.

its encouraging that the Guardian Published the PCC update thereby acknowledging their responsibility. Now, lets see if the UK's notoriously irresponsible media lives up to there responsibilities as well.

Sarah Hoffman reminds us a march was held in Oakland last night for Sasha who identifies as A Gender.

Sasha's skirt was set on fire by Richard Thomas after falling asleep on on a city bus on the way home.

16 year old Thomas was charged as an adult with this hate crime after telling police he did because he was homophobic. The crime was also caught on surveillance video but police haven't released it saying its too disturbing.

"When I found out about this I almost didn't want to take it" Jeydon told Action 4 news meaning the picture but his sentiment could mean, and has meant so much more to other trans youth facing discrimination from schools.
The Burnt Orange Reports that the Southern Law Center (SPLC) will take legal action by November 21'st if Jeydons picture is not in the yearbook.

Being a transgender Texan only a few miles away I find this sort of discrimination appalling. Texans are better than that and we know it.

Both HRC and the Southern Law Center have become involved asking the school board to respect Jeydon but in the correspondence form the Board the continued to misgender Jeydon and use his birth name.

The SPLC's demand letter describes how refusing to include the photograph violates the student’s freedom of expression, which is protected by the First Amendment. It also violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, which protects the student from discrimination, as well as Title IX, which bars discrimination on the basis of sex by any education program receiving federal money. Refusing to publish the photograph would even violate the school district’s own anti-discrimination policies.

Call it out: Yearbooks are for memories not discrimination!

The theme for La Feria High School's yearbook shouldn’t be discrimination.

But officials at the Texas school want to stop Jeydon Loredo, a male student, from being featured in the yearbook wearing his tuxedo like every other boy, simply because he’s transgender.

This kind of discrimination isn't just wrong - it's in direct violation of federal law and the school's very own policies.

The issue has been appealed to the school board with the help of our partners in this effort, the Southern Poverty Law Center. Jeydon’s family has asked equality supporters like you to help ensure that Jeydon can appear in the school’s yearbook wearing his tuxedo.

Tell the La Feria School Board to take decisive and clear action: Let Jeydon’s tuxedo photo appear in the yearbook alongside his friends and classmates. Discrimination against transgender students is a violation of school values.